AS her family tucks into her mum’s signature lasagne, Gillian Doig’s mouth begins to water.

But she can only dream of sampling her favourite dishes, because she suffers from an extremely rare illness, which means she’ll never eat a proper meal again.

Gillian, 27, has gastroparesis and her stomach became paralysed three years ago after a plate of mince and potatoes made her throw up nearly 30 times.

The former hotel receptionist shrunk to six stone and doctors attempted to fit her stomach with a pacemaker in a desperate bid to keep her meals down.

But in May this year, Gillian was given the devastating news that the op had been unsuccessful – meaning she’ll be tube fed for the rest of her life.

She said: “I got really upset when doctors told me I’d never be able to eat a proper meal again.

“Deep down, I think I knew that my operation hadn’t worked, but to actually be told you’ll never eat again is really hard.

“I love food and I really miss big plates of pasta, as well as my mum’s lasagne, but now I’ve been told I’ll be tube fed for the rest of my life.

“All I can do is suck on some sweets so I can enjoy a bit of flavour. It’s devastating, but I’m trying my hardest to be positive.”

Gillian, from Dundee, first began to feel ill in 2008, when she started suffering from extreme diarrhoea every time she ate.

She assumed she simply had a bad bug, but when her symptoms didn’t disappear after three weeks, she was given blood tests. She was admitted to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee and wrongly diagnosed with pancreatitis, an infection that often causes extreme vomiting. She said: “I was scared and upset.

“I spent about five weeks in hospital but when I was discharged, the doctors told me there wasn’t any permanent damage.”

But a few months later, Gillian began vomiting almost every time she ate. She said: “I’d eat a square of chocolate and I’d be sick two or three times – it was horrible. I was told I was allergic to dairy products, so I cut them out, but it didn’t make the problem disappear.

“It got to the stage that I didn’t eat at all if I was working because I was a receptionist at a hotel and I couldn’t keep running off to be sick.

“I began to wonder if doctors would ever get to the bottom of what was wrong and I started to worry it was in my head.”

After countless tests, Gillian was diagnosed with gastroparesis in 2009.

The condition occurs when the nerves in the stomach, which control the flow of food through the digestive system stop working. Symptoms include abdominal bloating, severe vomiting and weight loss but it is estimated doctors in the UK deal with just 50 cases a year.

Gillian said: “Even though I was told that there was no cure for the condition, it was such a relief to finally know what was wrong with me.